‎PlayTime (1967) directed by Jacques Tati • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

PlayTime

1967 Directed by Jacques Tati

Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in the age of technology reached their creative apex with Playtime, a lasting testament to a modern age tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.

Jacques Tati Barbara Dennek Rita Maiden France Rumilly

124 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Marcissus ★★★★★ 5

What a mess. What a beautiful fucking mess. Chaos and adventure reign. Nothing like a film that completely seduces you after a string of previous films failings that do naught to jolly your rodgers. I did not expect this magnetism. I did not lace my boots or put my tray table up in time. This is my first Jacques Tati film, poppin' cherries all over the place. With this ambitious paragon of hypnotism he goes straight to the top of the director to-do list. It is very sad to read of the debt and trials that he had to go through to get this made, and had to continue through for a decade after. I for one welcome our new…
Review by Rod Sedgwick ★★★★★ 5

Welcome to Tativille

Now this is beyond what I expected after Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - A cinematic marvel to be adored and respected and quite simply, a work of astounding genius. I think I really needed this extra level of Tati to really appreciate his art, and with it's colour presentation aiding me to escape my desire to compare him with the masters of the silent era. Filmed over 3 years, this ambitious vision of a world where modernity and technology obscures mans interaction with each other and everything is transparently artificial, Monsieur Hulot tries to navigate a Paris of steel lines and glass panes to share his heart with someone, anyone. From one ingeniously staged episode to…
Review by Bruno ★★★½ 18

I have mixed feelings towards Jacques Tati's Playtime. The first half is filled with plenty of hilarious and clever gags, being just a delightful adventure. Monsieur Hulot goes through a lot of confusing as well as unfortunate situations and he is one of those incredibly sympathetic characters you just can't help rooting for. Playtime is Tati's love letter to Paris and I liked how it deals with people's struggle with modern technology and the hectic life in the city. The second half of the film focuses on a busy night in a restaurant, which is surrounded by chaos and unforeseen events. It wasn't as interesting as the first portion for me and while it certainly contained a couple of excellent…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★½ 5

68/100

Audaciously grand and visually bewildering, Jacques Tati's Playtime made my eyes hurt. In this stunning accomplishment, Tati crafts a visionary and relentlessly detailed landscape and lets his camera loose. At points, the audience follows Monsieur Hulot, a confused and out-of-luck man whose goofy antics highlight the alienating structure around him. And yet, Playtime focuses more on the shifting interactions between people, drifting through modern towers and chaotic restaurants to illuminate the intricate stages of humanity.

However in spite of its majestic insanity, I can't say that I particularly enjoyed Playtime. Its humor, while brilliant and near-constant, wore thin within the first half-hour, and as a result, the entire film lagged at multiple moments. With no story keeping me emotionally invested, all I could think of during Tati's Playtime was how much I admired it.
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½ 2

66/100

Heretical confession: Though my first viewing was ideal—70mm on the giant Lumière screen at Cannes in 2002, right after its restoration—I think I enjoyed it more at home (on Blu-ray). Rather than feeling continually anxious about what I might be missing in a far corner of the screen (my own idiocy, admittedly), I was able to relax and allow my attention to be subtly directed, which made the first half much funnier. And even when the office-set stuff isn't hilarious, it's consistently awe-inspiring, particularly in the way that adjacent shots navigate the architecture; each new angle builds on the previous one, usually in a way that requires a brief but invigorating moment of visual recalibration. Until night falls, yes,…
Review by Emily Housel 3

it took me about 4 viewings to get through about three quarters of it bc it kept putting me to sleep. i came back to hulu tonight, disappointed that its gone, as were a ton of others on my watchlist (they're probably in filmstruck now or somethin). it probably just wasn't meant to be. it most likely would've lulled me to sleep again. i really apreciate this one though. Tati had a great vision. and although it was playful and humorus at times, it wasn't very entertaining. i love the world he created, but we aren't very engaged in it. wish there was a little more dialogue. but again i really apreciate and enjoy the concept of the film, just couldn't really get into it as much as i'd hoped.

Recent reviews

Review by Aron McGill ★★★★

Taking 3 years to film, PlayTime is Jacques Tati most ambitious film. Possibly the most ambitious film ever made Monsieur Hulot returns. By this stage however Tati had begun to grow bored of his iconic character so Monsieur Hulot appears only intermittently throughout, since the film is made of six interconnected sections sometimes Monsieur Hulot is the main character and sometimes a supporting character. Like the previous film, Mon Oncle dialogue is frequently reduced to background noise and supported by creative sound effects. The subtle but complex visual gags are increased by the enormous set built for this film that makes the whole film feel like a Rube Goldberg machine.
Review by John ★★★

Learn French if you don't want to read the subtitles and try to track the dizzying simultaneous action in every frame of this plotless visual roller coaster ride. Considered by many to be Jacques Tati's masterpiece, Playtime sans Hulot as the central character is just not as much fun as the earlier films in the series.
Review by evanstewart ★★★★½

I finished a certain Russian novel of considerable size earlier this day after several days of reading it continuously. I was pretty burned out on reading in general by the end. My head was full of words and I needed a break. So I watched Playtime and it cleared my head out nicely.

It was as funny as I expected at first. By the end, however, I realized that those early portions were merely training me how to watch the film. By the time I reached the restaraunt segment, I was properly trained to keep with every bit of visual comedy.

The chaos of that restraunts opening night seemed to act as a microcosm for Tati's whole city. It's posed…
Review by Abraham Herrera ★★★½

I felt the second half much superior to the first and the use of glass in this film was amazing.
Review by w_nderer ★★★½

modernism can be rather absurd, no?
Review by Daniel ★★★★★

Pure, successful ambition. Orchestrated with precision, ingeniously designed, and providing a mocking, yet joyful, commentary on the price of advancement.
Review by Ray Barrington ★★★★★

Jacques Tati's masterpiece is an audacious achievement in film making with plenty of hysterical sight gags and biting social commentary.
Review by Jacob Kuppermann ★★★★

the funniest comedy i've seen without any actual jokes
Review by Richard R. ★★★★½

Automatons Attack!

Plug in, plug out. A feverous ballad of consumption, conformity, and organized chaos amongst a garden of overwhelming artifice. Like a cat and a laser pointer. A song-and-dance of humanity filtered through "modern grey." Though drinking from the well of Chaplin makes this a Funny Hell in the wake of Antonioni's Eclipse. And stressful.

Now party together, yet not be together. Bleep bloop.